O’Neal Love Glove

O’Neal Love Glove
Price: £29.99
From: FLI Distribution http://www.flidistribution.co.uk/
Tested: 6 months.

I love the feel of these gloves. With no padding on the palm you know what’s happening with the bike. It’s also the first pair of gloves I’ve ever worn that fit me ‘like a glove’. Usually one of the fingers has a bit flapping somewhere. Not with these.

The styling always raised a smile, on top of the hard wearing upper, each glove features a lady in either devil or angel guise with breasts and nipples moulded into the raised profile. Very sexy.

The palm is made of a simulated leather material, with small perforations all over it. This is where it all started to go wrong. The first pair I had, in size 9, started to show signs of wear quite early on around the thumb and fore-finger interface. A quick call revealed that, despite them fitting me so comfortably, they were slightly too small, and therefore putting undue stress on the material and causing the perforated holes to get bigger.

Replaced with a size 10, I quickly grew happy with the slightly looser fit. And these have certainly lasted longer than the size 9, but, unfortunately the same problem is beginning to arise.

It’s a real shame, because I love everything else about these gloves. I think the answer is for the re-enforced thumb material (which is the same as the palm but without the perforations) to extend a bit further and strengthen this area. After all, it’s this bit that’s constantly rubbing on the grips.

Overall: Lovely fit, and lovely feel. It’s a real shame about their durability.

Tom de Bruin